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Turn-Taking and Intercultural Discourse and Communication
When people engage in conversation, they take turns speaking. This seems at first a self-evidently simple matter: one talks, then another talks, then another. But how do speakers know when their turn at talk has come? How do they accomplish the exchange of turns? For what reasons and in what ways do speakers take turns that others believe they are not entitled to? Moreover, what are the consequences when participants in a conversation have different assumptions about how to answer these questions? It is obvious to everyone that being raised in different cultures and speaking different languages entails learning different grammars and lexicons. It is somewhat less obvious that languages and cultures may also come with different practices and ideologies about exchanging turns. Because turn-taking habits operate automatically, they tend to be invisible, so when they differ, people are likely to interpret the consequences as resulting from interlocutors’ intentions (e.g. You only want to hear yourself talk) and abilities (e.g. You have nothing to contribute to this conversation).
Perceived violations of turn-taking are typically labeled interruption. This designation attributes the disruption in turn exchange to one party’s behavior and intentions. But perception and intention are not always the same. Just because one person feels interrupted does not mean that the other intended to interrupt. Moreover, anything ...
